Dortmunder Export Hops

[John Sand]

I'm planning my first lager for tomorrow. Right now I am thinking of the Dortmunder Export from BCS, though I am open to suggestions. The recipe is 8.5#pilsner, 4#munich, 2oz melanoidin, hallertau for all hops. I have a little mittelfruh, which I thought I would use for flavor and aroma. For bittering I have cluster, perle, aramis or a bunch of American hops. What would you do?
I also love some modern craft lagers, I could be swayed.

[John Sand]

Okay, I found a recipe for Brooklyn Lager, and I didn't find any examples of Dortmunder to taste. So now I'm looking to sub some other hops. Brooklyn calls for Willamette, Vanguard and Saphir, of which I have none. I have Fuggles for the Willamette, and Mittelfruh for the Saphir.

[mashani]

Aramis would be good in one of those I think, but you would need to be careful to avoid over bittering it if your Armais are as potent as the stuff I had. But in the small amount you need, any flavor it brings should be mild and blend nicely with the Mittelfruh.

Fuggles, although I love, I'd be careful with as it could become somewhat predominant. It's not as delicate as Willamette and even as a bittering addition the flavor will come through, and considering you would need to use a lot more then the Armis, then it's even more likely.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Search for a Great Lakes Dortmunder recipe to see what hops are used, it is a very good Dortmunder.

[John Sand]

Thanks guys. Steve, I think I'll make the Dortmunder sometime after I can try one, though it looks good.
Mash, the Brooklyn recipe call for 9.6# two row, 14oz Munich, 11oz C60. The Willamette is bittering, I think I can will use Perle instead, adjusting for IBU. The flavor and aroma would be just Cascade and Mittelfruh, excluding the Saphir and Vanguard. What do you think?

[mashani]

FWIW, Great Lakes Dortmunder is bittered with Cascade and finished with Mt. Hood. It's an awesome beer.

I don't think Cascade should be noticeable as grapefruit in such a beer (it is not in the Great Lakes), so I would not use it as a finishing hop, or at the very least be cautious with it, unless you want to be a rebel.

Mittelfruh is good equivelant for Mt. Hood.

[John Sand]

Thanks. I went with the Brooklyn Lager Recipe, provided in their blog. They use Cascade. I still want to brew a Dortmunder, but I want to try a good example first.
I brewed this today, using Perle for bittering, Mittelfruh and Cascade for flavor and aroma. I'll let you know how it works out.

[John Sand]

Drinking this beer now, it's good. It took a while to "lager" in the kegerator.